It sounds like the kind of utopia that filmmakers turn into horror movies.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
7 Likes
When it lists I’ll happily send you a link. There is a 3 bed 3 bath house and small 3 stall barn on the site.
4 Likes
The OP’s description just sounds like a privately owned boarding facility surrounded by a housing development with an HOA, and lots large enough to keep a couple of horses.
The HOA would put me off. I’d also want to be able to build a tiny house without running afoul of minimum size restrictions.
4 Likes
If you’re considering Arizona, forego any place with an HOA and just buy in Chino Valley or Prescott Valley. Lots of acreage for horsekeeping, you can have a modular home or a tiny home (check the permitting in certain zones) and it’s far, far less money than Prescott.
I live in Prescott. But I board my horse in Chino Valley.
Yet if you’re trying to escape winter, our nighttime temps have been hovering between 10 and 20 degrees for weeks. So there’s that to keep in mind.
5 Likes
Minimum size restrictions leave me scratching my head.
5 Likes
Ooh boy. Totally agree with this. I will not, under any circumstances, move into an HOA. It’s politics in a microcosm and everybody ends up knowing everyone’s business and dalliances.
In my opinion, having an equestrian facility attached to it in some manner makes things worse, even if it’s run and maintained by an independent contractor or vendor. Potentially, you end up with people from various riding disciplines (and skill levels) expressing varying views on the footing and how it should be maintained. Or the feed and how it should be dispensed. Or the access to the turnouts and how they should be managed. They get unhappy with the management of the equestrian facility so there’s turnover.
And, in typical human behavior, one or more of the horse folk who live within the HOA appoint themselves as Head Honcho or Queen Bee and assert their knowledge and opinion throughout the community, whether you want to hear it or not. It is nothing at all like having your own horse property or riding at a professionally run training barn.
As you can tell, I am bitter and scarred from past experiences. 
16 Likes
There’s one up the road. The horse property owner decided they didn’t want to play nicely with the home owners. A bunch of people bought and built under the guise of arena and resource access which never manifested. They mostly sold and left leaving non horse people to move in. The horse property is way too much infrastructure for most private owners and doesn’t have enough pastures to support the number of stalls designed for haul ins and clinics. It has set empty on and off for years and I pity the person who has to try and take on replacing the roof, ring resurfacing, etc on a place that size.
2 Likes
Nope. HOA of any kind is a hard stop for me. I won’t even glance at a property that has one.
9 Likes
That’s a trap of sort that I’ve seen before. Horse owners buy a home specifically within that HOA because of access to the equestrian facility. Then that equestrian facility either doesn’t live up to its promise, falls into disarray, hires less than desirable staff, and then closes. Now the homeowners who have horses-- who bought there because of access to the stable— are left wondering what the heck to do.
Just no thank you.
7 Likes
The small city I live in when it was founded the area was open rangeland. The foundation of the city was centered around preserving the right for the home owners to keep livestock. For many years there was riding club with an arena, as the city developed this riding club moved move the arena outside the city into then undeveloped land (even that has since been developed).
One of the main selling points for properties here that it is Not a HOA but a real city.
Today there are still about a hundred horses around us, maybe more. that are protected by city ordinances.
3 Likes
In middle TN in the 00s, they attempted a couple developments similar to what the OP is proposing. I can think of at least two.
They were essenarially luxury communities centered around a high end equestrian center, similar to what you would build around, say, a golf course.
None of them ended up how they were envisioned. They had trouble selling lots and filling the barns, because horse people didn’t want to spend all that money to board and non-horse people didn’t want to spend all that money supporting someone else’s expensive hobby.
Both places ended up allowing an outsider take over the horse facilities.
I live in something that is sort of like an equestrian community now. But we have no shared, central facilities and no HOA. It’s just a neighborhood of farmettes. Maybe 1/3 of the properties have horses and there’s not really much benefit to me. (Maybe there would be if I were the type to go knock on my neighbors’ doors and invite them over for coffee)
3 Likes
Yes, been in this movie. The average home owner can understand supporting pickle ball courts, a club house, a community pool and even a little manmade lake stocked with fish. But once the cost of maintaining and supporting an amenity like a riding stable with arenas, hay costs and staff became a burden, resentment ensued and divided the residents.
2 Likes
yeah here the city spent $15,000,000 building a sports center for pickle ball and other activities, then has hired a staff of about 15 to 20 to manage the place funded by tax property tax payers at $600,000 a year
Those of with horses have our own activity centers in our barns funded by the owners
3 Likes
For me, an HOA is a full-stop, no-way, no-thank you, never-ever.
I am a member of Green Mountain Horse Association, a local non-profit equestrian facility which gives me access to a robust trail network and use of facilities (dressage ring, jumper rings, eventing course) on designated members’ days. And discounted stabling when I am competing. I’m glad to be a member and have access to the facilities. It’s a 10 mile ride or 20-ish minute trailer away from my house.
10 Likes
This is what I’ve seen in my area. Not only that, the developer built the indoor 1/2 mile from the barn🤦♀️.
1 Like
I discovered the GMHA completely by accident, when I was in SO Woodstock for my brother’s wedding years back and fell in love. What a gorgeous spot and the mapped out trails are amazing.
3 Likes
Barn perfect.
House too big.
I’m in 1400sf now & half (basement with Related Living unit) isn’t used except for laundry.
Sigh…
1 Like
LOL, how true and don’t just highlight horse people vs. Non-horse people. Because truth be told as I’m sure you know (at least here) they’re divided into 3 groups - horse people, dog people and the nons - no horses, no dogs and… It’s really quite amusing in a way unless you’re caught in the middle of it. When one of the ‘dog’ people told me I was one of THOSE horse people, I asked her if my dogs didn’t count (have 4). She explained that once a horse person always a horse person. Honestly I couldn’t argue with her. I never thought I’d see the day when dog people hate other dog people once they find out that one of the dogs is actually a horse. Fortunately we built and moved in knowing that we’d give it a year or so and if we didn’t like it we’d be building elsewhere in the area. We loved the area, appreciated the beauty and did get reasonable use out of the facilities (not just the equestrian ones)…until. It’s been cycling this way since it’s inception (21 years ago) and until 3 years ago I had just been watching it from afar. Soon I’ll just watch from across the fence LOL.
5 Likes
I know to many negative reviews of HOA’s to move into an HOA.
However, trade HOA for a mix of amenities and fees - so say one side has 5+ acre properties where individuals can keep horses at home and another side has smaller lots with an associated boarding barn. The 5+ acre properties would have a horse maximum and clause that they can only build so much (like not extra houses or building onto the house or barn so much that it limits grazing land)
You can pay one fee to just use the indoor, outdoor, and trails and keep your horse at home or live in the smaller lot and pay for boarding your horse, with full care options.
Ideally, those even keeping their horses at home can also take advantage of things like feed and hay deliveries as part of a larger group so they don’t have to pick up themselves or pay a larger fee.
Things to consider would be what the anemities would be - given a mix of disciplines will likely live there - how to accomodate jumpers along side western pleasure, dressafe and reiners, especially in the winter. Are there multiple arenas (reiners will want deeper footing than jumpers, for instance). Theoretically, trail/pleasure riders would be the easiest to fit in but my step-mom broke her hip falling off her horse after he took off when someone came into the arena and started jumping around and got her horse excited…so… (NOTE: she was not upset or anything, just a note that she was a perpetual beginner that was a pleasure rider and that is a potentially liability issue).
There is the question of staffing the boarding barn and maintenance employees. Would the boarding barn be self care? How does turnout work (assuming adequate pasture).
Personal issues - my current horse husbandry is much different than conventional as my horse does not get any grain but a mix of pellets, oats, and supplements designed to offset what is not in the grass (and the grass/ground has been tested for content). While it would be very difficult to convince any law enforcement that she is malnurished, I am sure many people would question her feeding routine.
My horse is also out 24/7 with free access to the barn in bad weather. (we actually tried to close everyone into the barn during recent storms but my friend’s gelding keeps letting everyone out so the best we can do is entice them to stay in by feeding yummy hay).
Meanwhile, a friend’s horse is out only a few hours to all day (depending on weather) and spends a good deal of time in the stall.
So - challenge would be accomodating different horse husbandry styles in a boarding setting. It would be easier with those keeping their horses at home and the convenience may be a handy horse sitter right next door for vacations. But many people may be attracted to the boarding aspect for the convenience of keeping their horse close but not having to get up every day to feed or having to take care of all that acreage.
Anyway…I’m on the fence because have others have also stated - what happens when someone moves in then is no longer keeping horses?
1 Like
This is the model I see near me - public arenas and trails are maintained by the city or a local community organization, and lots are permitted for horsekeeping, usually ending up as a mix of horses being kept at home and boarding facilities. The swankiest/best known might be Hidden Hills (https://www.hiddenhills.org/) but there’s many little equestrian neighborhoods and public parks with riding arenas & trail access dotted around, even in the middle of LA.
3 Likes
